_{By Kadee Henderson}

This is a follow-up to a January 2023 piece on building major and minor scales.

After a musician understands key signatures, scale degrees, and the different types of scales, the next step is to learn about chords. Music is built from harmonies, and chords are the essential component to creating these harmonies. Whether a piece is in a major or minor key depends on the chords that are used, making chords the foundation of tonality. We will begin with the simplest way to build a chord.

One of the first chords a musician will learn about is called a triad. This means the chord has three notes, and the intervals between these notes are made of thirds (which explains the use of the prefix “tri”). Consider this C Major triad:

The first note (or the “tonic”) is the root, the middle note is the third scale degree, and the top note is the fifth scale degree. Another way to think of this is in terms of major and minor intervals: the root to the third is a major third (C-E), and the third to the fifth is a minor third (E-G).

Another way to think about this: form a major third from the root of the chord first (C-E), and then form a perfect fifth interval from the root of the chord (C-G). Either way is a perfectly acceptable method for creating triads. Below are the notes required to create a major chord in each key.

Major Key	Major Triad
C Major	C-E-G
G Major	G-B-D
D Major	D-F#-A
A Major	A-C#-E
E Major	E-G#-B
B Major	B-D#-F#
F# Major (also known as G-flat Major)	F#-A#-C# (or Gb-Bb-Db)
C# Major (also known as D-flat Major)	C#-E#-G# (or Db-F-Ab)
A-flat Major	Ab-C-Eb
E-flat Major	Eb-G-Bb
B-flat Major	Bb-D-F
F Major	F-A-C

Often, though, these notes may be “rearranged”; instead of C-E-G, the chord may be written as E-G-C or G-C-E. These are known as first (E-G-C) and second (G-C-E) inversions. The simple way to think about inverted chords is to take whatever note is usually on the bottom of the chord and put it on the top.

Minor triads are also built from the root, third, and fifth; however, the interval between the root and the third will be a minor third (such as from C-Eb). Another way to think of this is to take a major triad and “lower the third” by one half-step (C-E-G → C-Eb-G). This means the interval from the third to fifth will also become a major third (Eb-G). Put simply, a major triad consists of a major third first, then a minor third. A minor triad is composed of a minor third first, then a major third.

One thing major and minor triads share in common is the interval of a perfect fifth from the root to the fifth (C-G). Form a major or minor third between the root and the third scale degree (depending on whether you want a major or minor triad), then form a perfect fifth between the root and the fifth degree.

Other triads include the diminished triad and the augmented triad. The diminished triad also contains a minor third between the root and the third (C-Eb) like the minor triad, but consists of a minor third between the third and the fifth (Eb-Gb). A straightforward way to think of this is to take the minor triad (C-Eb-G) and “lower the fifth” by one half-step (C-Eb-Gb), which correlates with the definition of “diminished” (to make smaller or less). The diminished chord is therefore composed of a minor third (C-Eb) and a diminished fifth (C-Gb).

Augmented triads are built from a major third (C-E) and another major third (E-G#). Simply take the major triad (C-E-G) and “raise the fifth” by one half-step (C-E-G#), which also correlates with the definition of “augmented” (to make greater or larger). To put it plainly, an augmented triad has an augmented fifth, just as a diminished triad has a diminished fifth.

To summarize, here are the “building blocks” for building major, minor, diminished, and augmented triads:

• Major triad = Major third, minor third
• Minor triad = Minor third, major third
• Diminished triad= Minor third, minor third
• Augmented triad= Major third, major third

Now that we understand what major, minor, diminished, and augmented triads are and how to construct them, we will dive into diatonic harmony and seventh chords in our next article! With this knowledge, musicians will be well on their way to understanding the numerous harmonies and chord progressions they encounter in their music.